Slipstream wrote:Any idea of the most wides bowled in ODIs. I know of one current player who has 327. Cricinfo didn't attribute wides to a bowler until about April 1994. Akram played 356 ODIs and must have over 600.

I've heard Michael Holding say more than once that he never bowled a wide or a no-ball in a one-day international.Is that true, and does he hold the record if it is? asked Liam Clayton from Australia

Michael Holding sent down 5473 deliveries in one-day internationals, and he's right that none of them was a wide or a no-ball. His long-time team-mate Joel Garner bowled 5330 deliveries without a wide (or a no-ball), and Lance Cairns 4021. Without wishing to play down Holding's feat, we should probably recognise that the calling of wides has become much more rigorous over the years since his heyday. Mohammad Hafeez has so far sent down 7076 deliveries in ODIs without a no-ball (but 85 wides), while Ravi Shastri bowled 6613 without a no-ball (but one wide). In Tests, the West Indian offspinner Lance Gibbs bowled 27,115 balls in 79 matches, without a single wide or no-ball. Richard Hadlee sent down 21,918 deliveries without conceding a wide, but did have 22 no-balls, while Derek Underwood (21,862 balls in 86 Tests) and Garry Sobers (21,599 in 93) never bowled a wide or a no-ball. (It's just possible that some of these players delivered no-balls which were scored from, which would not have counted against them at the time so might have escaped notice; the practice of debiting no-balls and wides against the bowlers' analyses started in the early 1980s.)